Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronics and, more specifically but not exclusively, to hot-socket circuitry.
Description of the Related Art
This section introduces aspects that may help facilitate a better understanding of the invention. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is prior art or what is not prior art.
Hot socketing, aka host swapping or hot plug, is the ability to insert an electronic component into or remove an electronic component from a system during system operation without causing the component to be damaged and without disturbing the operation of the system. Hot socketing is supported by providing special hot-socket circuitry that protects the rest of the component circuitry from over-voltage conditions that may occur while the component is either powering up or powering down. It is important for the hot-socket circuitry to turn on during a hot-socket power-up event before other circuitry (e.g., general-purpose input/output (I/O) circuitry) in the component turns on. To achieve this goal, conventional hot-socket circuitry is implemented either (i) using low Vt devices or (ii) with very strong drive strength compared to the other I/O circuitry. Unfortunately, using low Vt devices requires an extra step in the fabrication process, thereby increasing cost, and implementing stronger drive strength increases the layout area of the hot-socket circuitry.